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Lance (Legendary Defender)
Lance is the Paladin of the Blue Lion of Voltron who overtakes piloting the Red Lion. He is a self-described ladies' man and the self-named sharpshooter of the team. Personality Lance's personality is very egotistical, cocky, confrontational, flirtatious, and sometimes arrogant. He is usually the first to make light of a delicate situation and the second most impulsive of the team; second only to Keith, whom he has a somewhat antagonistic relationship/rivalry with, though this rivalry seems mostly due in part to Lance's jealousy towards Keith as opposed to any real aggression. Lance is the kind of guy who walks around with a chip on his shoulder and something to prove, but in moments of clarity he is shown he is a lot more than his actions suggest. He can actually be quite sensitive, reflective, and distant at times when his teammates are not around or when his guard is lowered. He deeply misses the Earth and wants to complete the mission of destroying Zarkon so that he can return to his family, which, from examining his psychic Paladin training showing a picture of them in his mind, he is very close to and is quite large. He also reflects on just how far from home he is when Coran shows him a map of the known universe and the distance between Arus and Earth just blew his mind. His arrogant and materialistic attitude serves as a cover for his feelings of homesickness, and is pretty transparent at that. He is also noted to be the least perceptive of his team, as he was the only one fooled by Pidge's disguise as a boy, and he expressed comical surprise when Pidge came out to everyone. Lance is brave, adventurous, friendly, and free-spirited, often howling like a wild man during his fights and adventures, showcasing his unrestrained love for what he does. He also holds a high degree of situational awareness on his missions as he is the one who stopped Keith from going on a rampage during their joint mission to get the Galra out of the Balmera, reminding his comrade that the planet was really a living creature, and he also stopped the Galra installation from hurting the mighty creature by using the Blue Lion's freeze rays to halt the collapsing structure after Keith melted it with a plasma beam. Lance is noted for his poor humor at times, a good example being when the team first arrived to Arus and he claimed he could hear something, as the team tried to listen in, he ripped a very nasty fart on board, having used his earlier claim as a setup to hot box the others in the cockpit. This shows that not only does Lance's sense of humor revolve around sarcasm, but commonly descends to quite puerile depths. Following Shiro's disappearance following their duel with Zarkon, Lance matured rather rapidly. He became far more serious in his missions, often coordinating with Hunk and the Blade of Marmora. During this time, he also appears to have lost much of his animosity towards Keith. Following Keith's ascension to the position of leader of the Paladins, Lance accepted the Black Lion's choice, and so lost his connection to Blue. Because of this, the Red Lion sensing Lance's change in heart, Lance became Red's pilot like Keith and King Alfor before him for his deference to a true leader and accepting the role of a dutiful soldier and right hand. When Shiro returned, Lance was self-conscious as to whether or not he belonged on the team due to Allura's prodigious skills as Blue's new Paladin, and faced with the possibility of Keith and Shiro returning to their original lions. This shows that Lance has slowly shed some of his glory-hounding tendencies. Lance is shown to embody the elemental affiliation of his Lion in his balanced abilities and many-layered nature. Like water, Lance can take many states, and he is not always as he appears and holds hidden depth within his seemingly shallow personality. His friendly and outgoing personality allows him to connect to all of his teammates despite their many differences. In these ways Lance embodies the element of Water. Around girls, Lance's mind sort of short circuits and he starts flirting. Lance is also notably fond of water, as his reminiscing reveals that he specifically misses the beach near his home, splashing in puddles, and experiencing rainfall. Lance's change in heart has been shown in how he now mirrors the Red Lion's spirit and elemental affinity: he's the slow burning flame that holds the team together, wielding the power of the Red Lion to help light the way for the other Paladins, and instinctively trusting his leader to know what's best. In many ways, Lance's connection to Red echoes not the fiery and spirited connection that Keith had with it, but rather his bond with the beast is similar to King Alfor's; a trusted right hand, putting the power to command in the hands of a great leader in battle, giving his assistance where it is needed, and stoking the fire for his friends. Abilities Lance is a natural sharpshooter and skilled marksman who has often shown his skills by nailing his enemies with powerful shots that are few in number, displaying his rarely seen precision in a fight. His Bayard takes the form of a rifle or a sniper. His reflexes are also extremely quick, as he realized that the drone that infiltrated the Castle was not Rover, and he managed to discern this fast enough to bravely protect Coran from the ensuing blast. Lance is also surprisingly durable despite his light frame as the aforementioned explosion should have been able to kill him, though he did sustain near-fatal wounds. He is also a skilled improviser when it comes to battle, directing Keith without speaking to get the drop on their Galra enemies. His piloting skills are not on the same level as Keith's, but are good enough that he was able to instinctively control the Blue Lion without any prior idea of how to do so, showing a close bond between the two instantly. He was also the first to figure out that the Lion was alive by following its gaze. Lance is also the most skilled of the team in all manner of aquatic combat. This is likely due to him growing up near the coast, and thus developing a high level of familiarity around, in, and under water. Lance is also likely the strongest swimmer on the team, as he is often casually comfortable in aquatic environments that disorient his teammates rather easily. His lean build would lend itself to a high degree of skill in the water, as most competitive swimmers are long and lean in appearance like Lance is. Lance's skill as a marksman is well recognized by Shiro, who refers to Lance as the team's sharpshooter. This talent is further backed by his precision timing on the battlefield, as during the mission to rescue Slav, Lance was able to calculate his final shot in such a manner that it allowed Slav to escape the airlock by waiting till the last minute to shoot the warden's mechanical arm at a critical area, securing the mission's success and the scientist's freedom. Lance is shown in his official stats to be the most well-rounded of the team, marking him as something of a jack-of-all-trades, and helps to give him common ground with all of the members of his team. Like Hunk, this rounded set of skills allows him to both literally and figuratively support his teammates. Lance initially had great difficulty handling the Red Lion's outrageous speed, not used to such a willful and wild lion to pilot. However, he slowly and steadily gained ground, bonding deeper with Red and accepting this change for the better. Notes * Lance was originally only known to be in his late teens.San Diego Comic-Con 2016 Jeremy Shada, his voice actor, has described him as being 16.Let's Voltron Interview with Jeremy Shada at WonderCon 2016 (0:52) However, his age was clarified in The Paladin's Handbook official guidebook, revealing he is 17. * Lance is Cuban.Voltron Twitter He grew up in or near Varadero.Fall of the Castle of Lions * The Paladin's Handbook official guidebook gives garlic knots as Lance's favorite food. * "The hunter becomes the hunted" is a quote in some of Lance's favorite movies. * It was revealed on the 100th episode of the Lets Voltron Podcast (released June 14, 2017) that Lance's birthday is July 28th. References Gallery :Main Gallery: Lance (Legendary Defender)/Gallery Category:Voltron: Legendary Defender characters Category:Characters Category:Males Category:Humans Category:Paladins